The writer of the NYT piece seems sympathetic towards Hiss and snippy towards “right-wing revisionist history” which tends to be critical of the leftist intellectuals who liked communism and Stalin’s USSR. Which is about what you’d expect from a NYT piece on this subject.
Yours is an excellent summary of the article for those who don’t want to read it.
I took a class from a history professor who was like that. He let FDR off the hook for Yalta and railed against “McCarthyism” claiming there were “never any communists in the government.” He absolutely adored Woodrow Wilson, FDR and JFK. Henry Cabot Lodge Sr., Nixon and McCarthy were the great villains of American history according to him. I would be critical of communism and JFK and question him on it. I think that’s why he gave me a B instead of an A.